Articles by Alan Ayckbourn
This article about Relatively Speaking was written by Alan Ayckbourn for the programme for his own amateur revival at Leeds Civic Theatre in 1970; this marked the first time the playwright had actually directed the play.Relatively Speaking
Oddly enough this, the most well known of all my plays, is the only one till now that I have never directed myself.* I wrote it originally as a result of a phone call from the late Stephen Joseph, a truly remarkable man of the theatre, without whose unrelenting deadlines this would never have been written and to whom I dedicate the play, sadly, but with great affection. He asked me then simply for a play which would make people laugh when their seaside summer holidays were spoiled by the rain and they came into the theatre to get dry before trudging back to their landladies This seems to me as worthwhile a reason for writing a play as any, so I tried to comply. I hope I have succeeded.* This isn't accurate. Alan Ayckbourn did not direct the productions of his first three plays.
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